


I'm Looking at You and My Heart Loves The View

by NiniAtTheYAC



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post 1x10, Romance, kind of smutty but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:47:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22328077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiniAtTheYAC/pseuds/NiniAtTheYAC
Summary: Ricky comes over to help Nini pack before she leaves for the YAC. Both of them are trying to be strong for each other, but when Ricky tries to comfort her things begin to escalate a little too quickly.This was inspired by someone on Twitter who tweeted about wanting someone to write, well, this. I didn't save it or retweet them so I literally can't find them but, this one's dedicated to you Random Twitter Rini Stan. Also, this is my first time posting anything like this, angst and fluff is more my genre, so let me know what you think but maybe be kind of gentle.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 13
Kudos: 177





	I'm Looking at You and My Heart Loves The View

Nini sits with her back up against the end of her bed, arranging and rearranging her suitcase to fit as many shoes as she could. Ricky sits in her hanging chair with a basket full of hair accessories and jewelry, trying to tease them apart so that later she could easily organize and decide which ones to take. On her dresser, her laptop is playing High School Musical 3, which Ricky had pretended to put up a fight about watching, but really he had seen the first two by now and was kind of interested in seeing how it all wrapped up. Under other circumstances, the domesticity of this evening would have Ricky’s heart shining and thinking about forever, but tonight there was a heavy cloud that neither of them could shake. In just seven days Nini would leave for the Youth Actors Conservatory and Ricky would still be here in Salt Lake, missing her. 

On the screen, Troy and Gabriella were in her bedroom having a picnic and talking about their future. Ricky looks away from the movie to see that Nini was fully enraptured in the scene, his heart constricts at the look on her face. He knows Nini. He knows that face. She was about an inch away from tears. He gently puts aside the hairpieces and crawls across her floor. Ricky reaches Nini just as Troy and Gabriella reach her door, he crosses his legs and wraps his arms around her, drawing his beautiful girl closer to him. Nini smiles and allows herself to be pulled into his lap. She continues to watch the movie, Ricky does too with his head resting on her shoulder. Gabriella runs her fingers through Troy’s hair and they share a sweet kind-of kiss. Nini shifts to sit across his lap so that she can look at Ricky as Gabriella begins singing about goodbyes and the furniture disappears around her. 

Nini gives him a sad smile and he tries to give her a reassuring one in return. Ricky can’t help but think that he would be happy to just live in her eyes, he wonders what she sees when she looks at him because nothing he sees in himself is worthy of the adoration that’s in her gaze. He opens his mouth to tell her that he loves her, remind her that she is a star with all kinds of talent, but before he can her hands come up to hold his face and she kisses him with a passion he would not have anticipated. He returns her kiss with equal intensity, his arms wrap tighter around her waist to pull her close, and Ricky swears he can feel Nini’s whole body relax against him. He loves how much she trusts him. He loves that she is his home and he is hers. He never feels safer than when he’s with her, and everything about her kisses screams that she feels the same way. Her hands smooth down his cheeks, one then reaches up to tangle in his curls while the other holds him close with a fist of his shirt. 

He deepens their kiss, thinking of all the times in the coming months when he knows he’ll be desperate for another moment with her like this. But Ricky is still aware of every move that Nini makes, not wanting to overstep in the heat of the moment. He notices the second that something changes in her. He pulls his lips away from hers, though it pains him to do so, and before he has a chance to try and get her to talk, Nini lets out a sob, burying her face in his neck. She turns to wrap herself around him, a leg on either side of his hips, one arm around his shoulders while the other hand digs further into his curls. Usually, Nini runs her fingers through Ricky’s hair to help calm him down when he’s upset, but this time he’s touched by the thought that maybe that habit has become a comfort to her by now too. His hand runs in soothing circles under her shirt on her back. 

The longer she cries, the more Ricky finds himself getting upset too. He’s honestly been sort of proud of how well he’s held himself together over the last two and a half weeks. It had taken only a couple hours for Nini to tell him that, much to her surprise, she’d been admitted to the program, but it had taken almost a full week for Ricky to succeed in convincing her to take that leap of faith for herself. He thinks that part of the reason he’s handled this alright is that he is completely sure that she is doing the right thing and that his support means so much to her. “Nini,” he finally whispers. “Beautiful girl, it’s okay. We’re gonna be okay. I love you.” Ricky still feels proud every time he says those words out loud to her. He never would want to go through all of the pain of their break up again, but all of that struggle certainly did give the words a greater weight in their relationship. 

Nini sniffles and sighs, pulling her head out of his neck to look at him. She looks like the picture of a broken heart and it hurts him to see her so torn up over this. She wipes her nose while he wipes her tears and they both let out a watery and pathetic laugh. “I know, Ricky,” she finally says. “I know we’re going to be fine. We’ll facetime, and call, and I fully intend to write you letters on paper and send them to you in the mail. I’m not worried about our relationship.” She sighs and shakes her head, but Ricky is more confused than ever. 

He ducks his head to catch her eyes, “Then what’s got you so upset?” Nini’s hand is finally out of his hair, she runs her thumb over his ear instead. Ricky feels himself smile at the realization that small, gentle touches are her love language. He feels so lucky to be loved by her. Finally, Nini works up the strength to say, “I’m just afraid of how much I’m going to miss you. I’m afraid to leave you on your own, I never want you to feel abandoned by me again. I want to be by your side every day, Ricky so that you can see and feel and know that I love everything about you.” Her eyes flutter around his face while she speaks as if she’s trying to memorize him. Ricky has never felt so precious to anyone, ever. 

Now that she’s started, it seems like she’s having trouble holding in any of her thoughts. “I mean, what if something happens and the only thing that can make it better is a hug? I don’t want you to have to go to anyone else for that and I don’t want you to go without it. And I just got you back! I know I sound crazy but, there were so many nights, especially when I first got to theater camp, where I just laid in bed at night crying because I thought I’d never get to run my fingers through your curls again, or hold your hand, or kiss you. I just want to be here to do those things that I’ve missed so desperately.” Nini seems to be getting a little hysterical now, so Ricky puts a hand on her cheek and interjects. “Hey, I’ve missed you too, but we’re both going to be alright. What’s a couple of months apart when we can have years and years together?” He leaned forward to lay his forehead against hers and looks deeply into Nini’s beautiful, shining eyes. “You deserve the chance to chase your dreams with everything you’ve got, I won’t let you put me in the way of that. It’s only a couple of months,” he says earnestly. 

Nini pulls her head away from his tucking her face back into the crook of his neck, Ricky thinks that she’s crying again until he feels an open-mouthed kiss fall on his neck. Oh. Ricky’s mind goes blank and his head falls back a bit to rest against the end of her bed. Nini kisses his neck. Lips, and teeth, and tongue alternate across his skin as she works her way down to his collar. She tugs it down a bit so that she can suck at his skin without having to worry that anyone will see the mark she’ll leave behind. Ricky sighs, somewhere he registers the elevated intimacy of this moment compared to other times that they’ve been together. 

She is settled in his lap, their hips nearly touching. Her moms aren’t home, out on a movie date, they won’t be home for hours. His heart picks up speed as her hands return to his hair and she begins to make her way back up to join her lips with his. He’s nearly panting by the time she reaches him. “Ricky,” she sighs before kissing him deeply. He is so overwhelmed by Nini. She is everything in this moment. On him, in him, around him. He couldn’t be separated from her if he tried. Her kisses are playful, as always. She flirts with her kisses, pulling away just as he starts to reach for more of her, and it drives Ricky crazy in the best way. He thinks about the first time he kissed her, really kissed her, and he realized that she had never been a tease but when she kissed she absolutely was. Sometime he’ll have to tell her about that, eventually, but not now. Now he just wants to be consumed by everything about her. 

Something changes though, her kisses stop teasing, she stops holding back, suddenly he can feel a desperation in her touch that he’s never felt before. Her hips slide forward to press against his, and he’s certain that she can feel the effect she has on him, but she doesn’t pull away from it, in fact, she seems to seek it him out. After a few sloppy kisses, she grinds against him and it’s enough to make him gasp, breaking their kiss. “Nini,” he sighs, but as wonderful as it all feels he starts to get a little panicky. She seems to misread his sigh as a sign of his permission because she grinds against him again, harder. It takes all of his will, but Ricky knows that he can’t let this go too much further, he puts a hand on both sides of her hips to gently press her back. He looks her in the eye, “Nini,” he gasps. “Hold on. Hold on.” She immediately stops and begins to blush with embarrassment. “Nins, I- we- we can’t do that,” he says trying to be both loving and firm with his words. 

“You don’t want to?” She asks without any incredulity or judgment in her voice. Ricky realizes that this is a genuine question, and he thinks he falls in love with her all over again. In her concern, he can see that she is more worried about his comfort than her own desire. 

“No,” he says. “I mean, I want you. I want to someday, and there is certainly a part of me that desperately wants to.” Ricky glances downward to indicate to her what he means and she laughs with him. “But, no, I don’t want to tonight. I have loved you for most of my life and when we’re, uh, together, um, like that,” Ricky was starting to lose his nerve and his words, they never really had conversations like this the first time around. Last year they both knew they weren’t ready so it never came up. Now things were different. They were older and their feelings were stronger and if things were different then maybe they would be taking that step. But things weren’t different. “Nina, when we’re intimate for the first time I intend to make love to you, not hook up, or have sex, or desperately try to cling to you before you go. We deserve to do it right.”

Ricky forces himself to look her in the eyes while he speaks, although he feels a deep blush creep up his neck to cover his whole face. If it were anyone else Ricky could never speak so openly, but it’s Nini. She smiles at him sweetly, “Is Nina what you’re gonna start calling me now on special occasions where you really need my attention?” She asks, with amusement in her voice. 

Ricky sighs dramatically, “That. That’s what you got out of all of that?” He jokes, gently squeezing her waist to tickle her. Nini squirms and lets out a squeak. “No, no, stop, oh my god, Ricky stop!” She throws herself off of him to get away from his antics, but they are both laughing, and feeling lighter than they have in days. She sits on her feet just out of reach and grins at him. He fakes a pout and reaches out for her. “Not a chance Bowen,” she grabs both of his hands to prevent him from bringing her any closer. Ricky laughs at her charades until sees a change in her smile, it warms her whole face. Nini looks down at their connected hands, he watches her pause for a moment before she kisses the back of each of his. He feels like he’s glowing with love for her. 

“Richard, you’re right. When we are together for the first time, it should be intentional and for the right reasons. Not desperate and rushed, but there is one flaw in your logic,” he gives her a quizzical look. “No matter where, or when, or how it happens, we will be ‘making love’. There’s nothing else that it could ever be.” She scrunches her nose in the adorable way that she always does when she wants to see him smile, and it works, just like it always has. She looks into his eyes for a moment, before theatrically singing to him, “Yeah, I’m looking at you, and my heart loves the view.” Part of Ricky hates that he knows the words to this song from all of the times he’s heard her sing it in the car. “Cause you mean everything,” he sings back to her. And her eyes light up all over again. Yes, part of him hates the fact that he knows the words to all the love ballads from the entire High School Musical franchise, but most of him loves that such a simple thing can make Nini so happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Why is Nini always running her fingers through Ricky's hair in this? Because I'm basic. And, I mean, have you seen his curls?? Yikes. I'm so afraid to post this. But I hope you liked it! Also, if anyone has any thoughts, I can never figure out how best to spell the nickname for Nini-- it sounds like Neens, but that spelling looks sort of odd to me so I've been spelling Nins, but I don't want to keep using it if it doesn't come across well.


End file.
